Air-hose coupling.



2 SHEBTSSHEZT i.

Patented May 10, 1910 I 4. WH

E. W. SHAW.

AIR HOSE COUPLING.

APPLICATION TILED JULY 1. 1909.

2 All Eugene I I QVilneaaco-f E. W. SHAW.

AIR HOSE COUPLING.

. 7 APPLICATION FILED JULY 1. 1909. 957,385, Patented May 10,1910.

2 HEET8SHEET 2.

Eugene Shaw her faces of tl EUGENE w. SHAW,- OF WEIR, KANSAS.

AIR-HOSE COUPLING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed July 1, 1909.

Patented May 10, 1910.

Serial No. 505.444.

To all whom it may concern:

citizen of the United States. residing at. Weir. m the county atCherokee, State t i Kansas, have invented certain new and usev fulImprovements in Air-Hose Couplers; and I do hereby declare the followingto be a full. clear. and exact description of the invention, such aswill enable others ski led in the art to which it appertains to make anduse the same.

This invention relates to improvements in car couplings and moreparticularly to the type employed for automatically coupling the airbrake hose.

The invention consists in an improvementon my former air brake hosecouplin granted to me by Letters Patent, dated Sep tembcr 10, 1907. andNumber 865,615. In that patenta coupling is shown consisting of a pairof draw heads arranged at the ends of a pair of adjacent cars. the drawheads carrying the air brake hose, and the parts being so arranged thatwhen the draw heads are brought together by the act of coupling thecars. the parts in each draw head leading from the end of the hose willbe brought into registration with the corresponding port in the oppositedraw head. whereby the hose ends will be placed in communic.-1tion witheach oth and securely clamped. ln that patent garta'is were disposed onthe indraw head and surrounding the air ports, and it. was found that.during the. coupling of the. hose that the friction be tween thesegaskets. caused by one slidingon the other. soon reduced theirusefulness. The. presentinvention therefore aims to remedy this defectby providing a coupling wherein the gaskets will be prevented fromsliding one upon the other during the coupling operation until the airports are in alinement. with each other when each draw head will bemoved laterally so as to bring the gaskets squarely together.

One object. of the invention is the provision of an improved form ofdraw h ad.

Another object is the provision of an improved form of bracket forcarrying the draw head.

A further object is the provision of an improved form of clamping bar,which is designed to bear laterally on the adjacent draw head and force.the gasket of the atter into engagement with the opposite gasket.

\Vith these and other objects iii-view as will more fully hereinafterappear. the present invention consists in certain novel details ofconstruction and arrangement of parts. hereinafter fully described,illustrated in the ac ompanying drawings and more particularly pointedout in the appended claims. it being understood that various changes inthe form, proportion, size and minor details of the device may be madewithout departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantagesof the invention.

In the acwmpanying drawings forming part of the specification Figure- 1isva side elevation of the parts in position readyto be coupled. Fig.Bis a top plan view of the same. Fig. 3 is a front view of one -of thedraw heads and the bracket and guide. Fig. 4 is a sectional plan View ofthe parts coupled. Fig. 5 is a transverse section view of one of thedraw heads and its parts.

Similar numerals of references are employed to designate correspondingparts throughout.

.\s shown in the drawings the adjacent ends of the ears are designatedin general by the ntuncrals 5 and t3. lf ep nding from the lower faceand disposed at one end of each car is a stirrup T. This member isarranged slightly to one side of the longitudinal center of the. car,and supports a bracket; 8. The latter is preferably formed of a singlepiece of metal. oblong in shape. and of a width corresponding to thedistance between the side arms of the. stirrup, or subrtantially so.This bracket is so formed that one end portion it bears on the rearfaces of the sides of the stirrup and is suitably secured thereto, andextends downa ardly to a pointadjacent the ()lll'\\':t1(ll carvedportions of the stirrup sides. .\t this point it is bent rcarwardly andat right angles to the vertical portion as shown at 10, and extends fora considerable distance in a direction parallel with the length of thecar ending in a downwardly directed extension or back 11, which extendsto a point a trifle above the plane of the lower end of the stirrtip.The metal of the bracket from the back 11 is bent, atsubstantiallyright-ang es thereto and extends forwardly as shown at 12, to a point,in aliaemeat with the lower end of the stirrup, to which it is secured,as clearly shown in the drawings. The bracket is further held sup- I ofthe rear step 20 of the draw head, so that ported by means of rearwardlyextending the longitudinal edges of the bent portions braces l3, theforward ends of which are sewill be in a plane with the face of theintercured to the lower ends of the stirrups and X mediate step, whilethe rear end of the guide 5 the opposite ends of which extend rear-;will be substantially flush with the rear end 70 wardly and upwardlyand are secured to the l of the draw head. With this construction itlower face of the floor of the car. With this is obvious that a spacewill exist between the construction it. will be seen that the bracketface of the inner step 20 and inner face of is firmly Supported by meansof the stirrups the guide which will be equal to twice the and braces.thickness of the tongue 17, or substantially 75 By referring now to thedrawings itwill so. That portion of the guide in advance of be seenthatthe draw bar is supported by the the rear step '20 is flared asshown at 26. bracket. This member is preferably formed Disposed in thespace betwccn the lower of a single piece of meta and is provided step:20 and inner face of the guide is one end with an elongated shankport-ion 14, to one. of what subsequently will be termed a clamp- 80 endof which is secured the central portion ing bar 27, the opposite end ofwhich is of the rcarendof the draw head 15. The latrigidly secured tothe back 11 of the guide. ter'on its inner'face is under-cut or rabbetedThe thickness of the latter is considerably to prta-ide a steppedsurface 16, the outer step less than the width of the space, and at itsof which constitutes a tongue 17. The interforward end or that enddisposed within the 85 mediate step is provided with a pair oftransspace is provided on its inner face or that verse openings arrangedin a vertical plane face disposed adjacent the inner step 20 andextending to opposite sides of the step, with a beveled surface. Thelength of this the nipples onthe air pipes 18 are designed beveledsurfactcorrcsponds to the length of to be titted into the outer ends ofthese 0 enthe inner step 20 or approximately so, and 90 ings while theopposite or inner ends 0 the in the normal position of the parts whenopenings, on the inner face of the head are they are uncoupled the upperextremity of 'counterbored to receive a suitable gasket 19. -thisbeveled surface will be in alinemcnt with The inner step is designatedby the numeral the forward or outer end of the inner step 20, 20, andextends to the inner end of the head. or approximately so. 95 The shank14 of the draw bar extends The guide is secured to the draw head bythrough the back 11 and is held against exmeans of a U shaped clampstrap 28, which treme forward movement by means of a cotembraces therear end portion of the guide ter or the like. Surrounding that portionof and has its opposite terminals projecting in the shank it between theforward face of the advance of the outer face of the draw head 100 back11 and rear end of the draw head is a and reduced to form studs whichare screw helical spring 21, and in order to maintain tlircadcd for thereception of suitable nuts. the draw head-in central position when un-The opposite arms of the straps are provided coupled, a pair of springs21 and 22 are 0111- with elongated openings 2!), which receive ployed,the lower. ends of which are consuitable pins projecting vertically fromthe 195 nectcd to an'eyc belt or the like :23, disposed upper and lowerfaces of the draw head. at the ccntralportion of the upper side of\r'ith this construction it is obvious that any the draw head, and theupper ends of which wear or stretching of the clamp strap may areconnected to the upper end portions of be tttKt'lt up by tightening thenuts. the sides ofthe stirrup. Thus it can be seen From the foregoiuo di ti th 110 that the draw hcad yieldingly held for tion of the devicewill be readily understood lateral and longitudi a tlw ll when it isunderstood that thcdrawht-ads are A flared guide or socket is disposedover of such length that they will project considtbc steppedsurface ofthe draw head, and in t-rablv in advance of the coupling members thepresent instance this member is shown to for the car. Thus when theadjacent ends of 115 be formed of'a single piece of sheet mctal or twocars are brought together the tongues the like and is of a lengthsubstantially equal 17 ill fir t. m -r the spaces between the to thelengtl't of the draw head. This uu-mguides, as the adjacent; ends arebrought her is so formed that it. will provide a housncarcr together theforward ends of the ing for the .draw head on the adjacent car stepswill be brought into engagement with no and in carrying out thiseonstructitui the car-h ulln-l', this will force the draw heads oppositelongitudinal sides :1 and 25 of the rcarwardly nd also force the tonguesover member are bt-nt inwardly and at rightthe clamping bars, wherebythe beveled ends angles. The. di. tauce bz-t ccn tltcsc bunt. p orol'the laltt-r will enter farther into the space Lions corresponds to thheight of the draw between the guides and draw heads. As this 12 head,andllic width o t' the portions is equal mottcnlcnt continues thetongues of the draw to about two-thirds of the gl'tnltthtthickness headswill be wedged in the spaces between of the lit-a l, orslllblillllltllly so. In positionthe beveled surfaces by the clampingbars ing the guide, the bent portions 2i and 25 and inner ste as,whereby each draw head will be move laterally until the air ports areplaced astridc the upper and lower sides

